![]() “The house is big” in Pidgin, for example, is “big, da house,” which borrows from Hawaiian sentence structure. Pidgin borrows phrases from various other languages. Native Hawaiians, Chinese and Portuguese had the most influence on Pidgin structure because they were the earliest plantation laborers. While Pidgin may sound like mixed-up English because English words provide a large portion of Pidgin vocabulary, it has its own grammar and sound system, said Kent Sakoda, who teaches a course about Pidgin at the University of Hawaii. Many who speak Pidgin believe there are far more speakers than the 1,600 counted in the census surveys. Census officials have been counting Pidgin since 1990.Ĭhristine Gambino, a survey statistician at the agency, said with more people knowing that it’s acceptable to write down Pidgin on the federal questionnaires, future data will be more reflective of an accurate number of speakers. Census isn’t in the business of recognizing languages. Some saw the census numbers as recognition for the language, though the U.S. Pidgin in Hawaii, or Hawaii Creole English, has long been considered a substandard form of English. There are other pidgins in other parts of the world, including in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. The news reports last fall helped spark a sense of pride among those who speak the language in their homes and among friends, and a discussion about its use and the stigma that limits its wider acceptance in the state. It’s become a lexicon that congeals the people who are from Hawaii,” he said. He said his videos resonated with those who grew up in Hawaii and were homesick for the sounds of the language. There are no estimates of number of speakers for many of them.Bumatai put up some videos online doing his routines in Pidgin, and one with English subtitles got 1.5 million views. Four of them are extinct and many are in the process of disappearing. It continued in use until about the end of the 19th century, when the Chinese started to switch to standard English.Įthnologue lists 18 pidgins used around the world. ![]() Its use spread from master-servant relationships to those between English and Chinese traders and bureaucrats. Chinese Pidgin English ( Chinglish), developed in the 17th century in Canton (Guandong), China,and survived for almost three centuries. The same is true of Pidgin French which disappeared from Vietnam after the French left the country. For instance, Pidgin Russian spoken in Manchuria disappeared when Russian settlers left China after World War II. They disappear when the reason for communication diminishes, as communities either move apart, one community learns the language of the other, or both communities learn a common language (usually the official language of the country). There are other theories about the origin of the term.īecause of their limited function, pidgin languages usually do not last very long, rarely more than several decades. The word, first attested in print in 1850, is thought to be the Chinese mispronunciation of the English word business. The term pidgin has nothing to do with birds. A good example of a non-European pidgin is the Chinook Jargon that was once used by American Indians and European traders in the Pacific Northwest. However, there are also pidgins spoken in parts of Africa, South America, and southeast Asia that are based on languages other than those of the colonial powers. For example, the establishment of plantation economies in the Caribbean, with large groups of slaves from different language backgrounds who came from West Africa, gave rise to a number of pidgins based on English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese. The major languages are usually the languages of the former major colonial powers, such as English, French, and Portuguese. Usually a pidgin language is a blend of the vocabulary of one major language with the grammar of one or more other languages. Nobody speaks a pidgin as their first language. ![]() ![]() Pidgins are “on-the-spot” languages that develop when people with no common language come into contact with each other.
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